Tried to get in touch with gas and electric complete nightmare. Met my mate in the street last night stopped for chat he told me hes been trying to get his benefits sorted out but he keeps on ringing up daft answerphone and waiting on line for over hour.

Is it just me or is it getting harder and harder to get any kind of help and advice due to these real people being replaced by phone recordings and answerphones.

When i grew up if you were on the dole you just rang up for crisis loan.Or you just rung up the electric board and spoke to someone. That freedom is gone .When was the last time you rung up a public service etc and never sat there listening to a voice recording telling you to press for different options?

Last year had my bank card stolen so rung up Barkleys bank and reported it stolen after about 15 mins going round in circles talking to daft voice recordings thought it would be quicker to put phone down and drive 15 miles to local branch

I predict in the future its going to get harder and harder to speak to real people on phones this has all been planned to slowley withdraw healthcare,benefits etc away from people. If no one can complain there is no voice.

not just you, by the time you have pressed every key on your phone in order to get through to whatever department you need - argued with the automate voice thingy that recognises nothing and listened to pan pipes for an hour - you have racked up the debt of a third world country in charges and then if you manage to end up speaking to a real person - they are usually lovely but utterly ineffective or incomprehensible either because I cannot understand the accent (regional or foreign) or the quality of the line is terrible.

thoreau wrote:
This is being designed to take our voice away. Complaints,advice etc will be a thing of the past one day .If your a struggling single mother whos just had their purse stolen .You will not have enough money to ring up and ask for crisis loan.

I predict in not too far a head in the future 999 calls will all be computorised voices. Imagine a world where you can not even phone police up if your being burgled or you can not phone an ambulance up in a emergency because the computorised voice keeps you going round in circles.

I've just had this problem with edf
I had my gas/electric with British Gas, but moved..the new flat had the leccy with edf. I had to make a new account with them before it could be transferred to British gas.
I spent days and days trying to get through to them....just kept on hold listening to their irritating music
I then sent them a complaint via email...I had a stock reply...".we take all complaints seriously, we will get back to you in 10 days"
15 days pass and nothing .....I try calling again...all this from a mobile...so I am paying for this crap.
I send another email to complain...I won't repeat what I put in said email but the next day I got a call from their customer services full of apologies. I am now back with British gas......mind, they're nearly as bad, but what can you do.

pheony wrote:
You can avoid the charges on a mobile to 0800 and other non geoloco numbers using a service/website like this one www.saynoto0870.com/ more info available here www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cut-cost-0800-mobiles .